 | edt4 (99)
05/09/2008 |  I was a small kid when I first saw "Planet of the Apes" (with my parents at the Anthony Wayne Drive-In during a lunar eclipse) and I was a big, big fan for a few years (at least until my voice started to change). When this sequel came out, I rushed to the theatre with my friends to see it, and, while I was discriminating enough even as a kid to know it wasn't as good as the first movie, I still enjoyed it immensely. I saw it again years later as an adult, and the ridiculous nature of much of the plot became glaringly evident to me in my maturity (as a kid, I took it all very, very seriously), but...know what?...I still found it to be a great deal of fun. Charlton Heston only appears for the last few minutes of the film, but, as Oscar mentions, he certainly doesn't let that abbreviated screen time stand in the way of chewing up the scenery like the inveterate ham that he was. In this sequel, the mutants are more disquieting than the apes, especially when they pull off their "human" faces to reveal their "innermost selves". Victor Buono ("King Tut" in TV's Batman), Don Pedro Colley (he played a flamoyant Baron Samedi in an unjustly neglected horror film from 1974 entitled "Sugar Hill"), Gregory Sierra (Julio from "Sanford & Son"), and Natalie Trundy (I believe she was the wife of one of the producers), are perhaps the most visually striking and disturbing "mutants". No, none it makes very much sense, and it's cheesy in a way unique even to horror-or-fantasy movie sequels, but it was and is entertaining and I've always retained a soft spot for it, a soft spot I never felt for any of the subsequent sequels, or the TV series, or the pointless Tim Burton re-make.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | oscargamblesfro (76)
05/09/2008 | Good for a laugh here and there. James Franciscus gets chased around by Inspector French from Barney Miller who spouts real far right wing hate group hatred and who's hiding inside a gorilla suit with a hat that would look more appropriate on a cardinal. Republican Party chairman and noted BAHH persecutor Dr. Zaius is in this too. There is actually a scene where a bunch of antiwar Chimp hippies are holding signs and get their asses hauled off to the can by the Man...err..Gorilla... Then Franciscus goes underground with a hot mute chick and finds scarred telepathic mutants who worship an atom bomb, and as the apes show up, he rescues Charlton Heston from the mutants and apes (but not from overacting) before the whole world is blown to smithereens by Heston after he's shot by fascist apes who are probably all in the NRA... This shit HAS to be better than a benign acid trip...
(2 voted this helpful, 1 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Djahuti (54)
10/26/2006 | Most of the original Planet of the Apes movies were well done (don't bother with the more recent one starring Mark Wahlberg!),with state of the art make-up that transformed the actors into man/apes capable of a lot more expression than previously seen in the movies.This one was memorable in the discovery of what had become of the humans,and my favorite scene showed how easily "ancient" artifacts are misinterpreted as the mutants venerated a statue of a female astronaut stamped U.S.A. - "UUUUUsahhhhh" ! Great stuff!
(2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
